Acknowledgments
"So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty." --Haniel Long
The Secrets of Benjamin Fox
This book would not have been possible without being able to ask questions of DNA expert and author Joseph M Fox III. Period. I started this thing completely lost and was only able to comprehend DNA developments due to his patient answers. I count myself so very fortunate in this respect
Bev Moltzau, the third great granddaughter of Ephraim’s sister Nancy Jane Fox (Bunch) was the first Fox cousin I met when I began genealogy and we have been thick as thieves ever since, to my delight. Bev has been investigating the Fox family well before I began and shared copies of everything she had. It was a wealth of information that boggles the mind. I count her as one of the closest friends I have made through genealogy. When I make a discovery, it is Bev I contact first to share the find.
Brenda Martin, the widow of Ron Martin and I have become partners while researching the secrets of Benjamin Fox. As She has been indispensable in explaining to me the suspected familial relationship Benjamin shared with a South Carolina Fox family. We have spoken for many fine hours on the phone as she has schooled me on a variety of subjects and I look forward to more to come.
Mark Watkins and distant cousin Noraye Sinclaire were kind enough to allow me use of the image of Benjamin’s daughter Marinda Jane Fox (Ewell-Watkins) with her son Richard Leighton. These special images are kept in their family and it was an honor to be able to use them.
Nora Brashear allowed me to use her photographs of Edmund Bacon and his wife Eliza Fox. She too has been trying for some time to unravel the mysteries that surround the family of Benjamin Fox.
Lynn Ware Sprattling was gracious enough to allow me to use the images of Edmund and Eliza’s final resting place, providing an important visual for the reader.
While researching for this series of books it has been my pleasure to exchange emails with Stephanie Flora who is not exceeded by anyone for her knowledge and pure depth of content about the Oregon Trail and the states history.
At one point I was able to communicate with Kathy Weiser, of Legends of America, a series detailing the minutia of the Wild West that makes it so colorful. What an honor!
Every writer needs a shoulder to lean on and Debbie Sherwood-Fox has been that shoulder for me during the entire process. She has ridden next to me on the Barlow Road and shared discoveries at museums across the state of Oregon. It means a lot to have someone care every day you draw breath.
"A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn."
Ephraim Fox on the the Oregon Trail, 1852
This story would simply not have been possible without the Donation Land Claim Records of Oregon or the diaries of those who Ephraim Fox and his family traveled among. The efforts of past and present historians that serve their purpose
without negationism is well appreciated. Francis Parkman is given credit for reporting what he saw on the Oregon Trail in 1847, precisely because he did not aggrandize or engage in pushing a social agenda. Researchers turned writers Stephanie Flora, Kathy Weiser-Alexander, Patricia Kohnen, Jerry Rushford, Ray Grassley, H.O. Lang, Howard McKinley Corning, Gregory Franzwa, John David Unruh, to name a few, have done much to preserve historical fact. The pioneers themselves who recorded their days of travel, sights and sounds in diaries and journals have left future generations an invaluable record; J.S. McKiernan of the McCully Train, James Fields, Willis Boatman, James Akin Jr, Ezra Meeker and others provide firsthand accounts that give life to emotionless historical timelines. I would like to thank the ancestors of the pioneers, and my genealogist peers, who were excited to share pictures and stories of their kin. We share the love of family and honor their memory.
To volunteers who record historical documents electronically, provide a workforce for historical societies across the nation and man
the desks in pioneer museums across the country, your unsung efforts have not gone unnoticed!
Thank you to extended family members Bev Moltzau and Linda Bunch for their invaluable contributions to this work. I want to thank my sister Donna for editing my work, making it a much more polished product. Finally thank you to Debbie Sherwood-Fox, for being an interested sounding board and constant source of encouragement.
Through the efforts of those who were there and recorded what they lived through and those who came after them who understood that the record of what happened was important to the fabric of reality, the story of this Fox family is now of record and becomes part of American history.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our story.
All these wonderful people and more made contributions to American Fox Tales, that did no less than make the whole possible. My words cannot begin to thank them enough.